Hi All,

Sorry I wasn't more specific earlier, I just jotted the above down as a note to myself between classes so I didn't forget what I was thinking by the end of Con Law.

More specifically: Based on our class discussion yesterday, I was thinking about trying to use Veblen to analyze the "successes" and "failures" of the environmental movement (although I share Daniel's concerns about the dangers of applying Veblen to every situation).

Based on my (admittedly limited) knowledge of the environmental movement, environmental concerns reached widespread popular knowledge in the sixties with Silent Spring. Despite that, environmentalism remained a fringe movement until recently, when suddenly it's very cool to be "Green." So what changed? Sure, the environment is rapidly deteriorating, but it was fifty years ago, too. I think one explanation is that environmentalism has recently become consumable. You can pay double for your organic food and your free-trade coffee, signalling to others both moral superiority and economic superiority.

Possible places I might go with this: - Look at how conspicuous this consumption might be. E.g., Do people buy recycled envelopes, or recycled envelopes with "made from recycled paper!" written on the back. - Should the environmental movement embrace this phenomenon? Isn't a large goal of the environmental movement getting people to consume less? In order to be successful, should it try to get people to consume, not less, but differently? - How does this tie into Veblen's ideas about who reacts to change (the middle class) and who resists (the upper and lower classes)? Who is willing to pay more to be green? - Perhaps tie this back to Veblen's discussion of charitable donations, although that might be biting off more than I can chew.

While writing this paper, I also want to keep in mind the fact that the environmental movement is not a unified movement (by any means), and that in a lot of areas it's not even environmentalists who are pushing Green products. Clorox is coming out with a new line of "green" products, but I don't think anyone will accuse them of loving the earth.

Thanks for all the comments. If anyone else has ideas with where I can go with this, or criticisms of the places I'm thinking about going, I'd welcome all comments. Also, you all should know that I consider myself an environmental activist (whatever that means), so let me know if I'm not keeping my biases in check.

-- AmandaHungerford - 27 Mar 2008